Steps To Buying a Home

For many first-time home buyers the process can be a little overwhelming.  Therefore I have put together this step-by-step summary on what buyers can expect during the buying process based on my experience in Northern Virginia.

1. Get pre-approved by a lender.  In Northern Virginia, 99.9% of sellers will not even consider an offer without a pre-approval letter from a lender.  That is the reason why many brokers will also not show you homes until you have shown them your pre-approval letter.  This pre-approval also makes sense.  It will give you, the buyer, and your Realtor a baseline for what you can and cannot afford.  You can line up your own lender or your Realtor can help you find one.

2.  Sign an agency disclosure and possibly an Exclusive Right to Represent Buyers Agreement.  The agency disclosure should be presented to you by your Realtor before they give you advice on home buying or shows you a home.  The agency disclosure is required by VA law to protect you the buyer.  An Exclusive Right to Represent Buyers agreement will state that you will only use that Broker during the process of purchasing a home and outlines the Broker's responsibilities towards you.

2. Send your Realtor your needs and wants for the home.  Start thinking on what features are a deal breaker and which ones will be nice to have.  Your Realtor will use this to put together a customized search for you and line up potential homes for you to view.

3. View homes.  This is the fun part!  Once you start receiving the listings and you find something you like, you will make an appointment with your Realtor to start viewing those homes and narrow it down to your dream home.

4. Make the offer.  Making an offer is more than just letting your Realtor and the seller know how much you are willing to pay for the house.  Your Realtor will put together a purchase contract that upon ratification (acceptance of the offer) will become a binding agreement between you and the seller.  The Offer must be accompanied with the lenders pre-approval letter and an earnest money deposit.  

5. The Home Inspection.  If the purchase contract has a home inspection contingency (and we strongly recommends this), a home inspector will look at the house and let you know any issues with the home.  At this point, you negotiate with the seller what items they will fix and what items you will just accept as-is. 

6. The Appraisal.  As soon as the offer is accepted, your lender will begin to ask for supporting documentation to get the official approval for the home loan.  One of those supporting documents (which the lender will order), is an appraisal of the home to make sure that the purchase price matches the appraised current value.  Unless this is a cash purchase, an appraisal will be required. The house must appraise for the purchase price or more.  If the house is valued at less than the purchase price, either the seller will have to reduce the price or you will have to pay the difference out of pocket.

7. Final Walk Thru.  After all the contingencies have been met (home inspection, appraisal) and your loan has been approved, you will inspect the home one more time with your Realtor.  The purpose of the "walk-thru" is to make sure the property is in the condition you agreed upon in the contract and the sellers took care of any repairs they agreed to as part of the contract. The final walk-thru usually occurs the day of, or the day before settlement. 

8. Settlement. You are now ready for settlement.  At settlement, if all goes well, all you will be doing is signing a stack full of papers and receiving your keys to the property. If it is a cash purchase, that stack will be significantly smaller.  In the worst case, scenarios, there might be some last minute negotiations regarding the condition of the house during the walk-thru.  

This list is by no means all inclusive as each process can differ.  However, it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.  If you are not in the VA area, but need a good Realtor, contact me through the web form on the right and I will help you get in touch with a prominent Realtor in your area.

HAPPY HOUSE HUNTING!!!

Luisa Rodriguez

Referral Agent

355 West Rio Rd

Charlottesville, VA 22901

Direct:  (240) 377-7104

I am exclusively a referral agent that maintains a license only to refer customers to Licensed Realtors.  Before becoming a referral agent, I was a successful, award winning Realtor.

                    

                                                                         

Fresh paint? or Toxic Air?

I am an environmentalist at heart.  I have been for sometime now, but it went into overdrive when my daughter was born 5 years ago.  So it is a natural progression for me to become more involved in "green" real estate as a Realtor.

A lot of my buyers will get excited when they smell the "fresh paint" on some of the homes.  Part of the excitement is that they know they won't have to do any repainting themselves, but few know how toxic that paint smell is.  Today's paints are less toxic than they were 10 years ago due to public demand but even low-VOC paints can still be harmful.  There are non-toxic paints out on the market and although more expensive, the health of your families will benefit in the long run (and this holds true for different types of paints and stains).  

Here are somethings you should know about paint.

1)  The EPA says that indoor air quality can be more seriously polluted than outdoor air and one of the causes is paint.
2) VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS (VOC) are a traditional component of many oil based paints and even latex paints (and some of your household cleaners as well).
3) Exposure to VOCs can cause can cause the following symptoms:

conjunctival irritation

nose, throat discomfort

headache

allergic skin reaction

dyspnea

declines in serum cholinesterase levels

nausea, emesis

fatigue

dizziness

4) Prolonged exposure has been linked to kidney and liver disease and even cancer.
5)  VOCs continue to be released well after the paint dries (I am talking years)
6) Zero-VOC paint will still have some level of VOCs but still at lower levels than traditional paints.
7) Small children and the elderly are the most susceptible to the negative effects of VOCs in the air.

I realize that as a buyer there are not a lot of homes that will use zero-VOC paints or non-toxic paints.   But you can choose to buy a home that has NOT been "freshly painted" and then paint it yourselves with the paint of your choice.  I know it is a lot more work and higher expense, but think about the savings in health care costs!

As a buyer you should demand greener and healthier homes.  Eventually sellers will comply.

My primary source for putting this blog together was Home Repair  and the EPA website at  www.epa.gov.

Luisa Rodriguez

Prestige Property Group

Exit Choice Realty

Woodbridge, VA 22192

240-377-7104

www.RealEstateEliteTeam.com

www.PrestigeRealEstateTeam.com

luisarodriguez@mris.com

For quality service, please contact us and a member of our team will be more than happy to assist you.   

                                 

Where to Live in Northern Virginia

As a Realtor, I get this questions asked a lot.  As a Realtor, it is also difficult to answer.   Because of the rules and regulations that we have to abide by, rarely can we provide an opinion on a "safe neighborhood" or what is the "best neighborhood."  If you give me a list such as, "high rise condo with pool and gym, less than three miles from work, in an area with nightlife," then I can easily pull a list together.  However, once we start getting into areas that are more subjective, then it becomes a little more difficult because what is "great" for one person, may not be so "great" for another.

The best way to get an idea of where to live is to see what your peers are saying and look at the local news for cities you are considering.  Here are some great places to start.

50 Great Neighborhoods 
Bestplaces.Net
City-Data.com
Crime Reports
WUSA9 Where You Live

Luisa Rodriguez

Exit Choice Realty

Woodbridge, VA 22192

240-377-7104

www.RealEstateEliteTeam.com

luisarodriguez@mris.com

For quality service, please contact us and a member of our team will be more than happy to assist you.   

                                

Military: Things to Consider When Moving to Northern Virginia

Two of the major characteristics of the Northern Virginia area that drive the location of where most people will decide to live is driven by school districts and traffic.  For information on schools, check out the right column at My Website. If you do settle on a specific school district, then my team will do their best to create a geographic search that will limit properties to that area.

Traffic in the Northern Virginia area can be stressful and painful.  The I-95 corridor looks like a parking lot during rush hour traffic and many commuters choose to arrive to work early to avoid some of that craziness.  The best way to reduce that stress is to choose an area near commuting hubs.  Even though the Metro is very popular within the "Beltway" (the area within the 495 loop), it is not the only commuting option.  Living inside the Beltway can be significantly more expensive that living outside the Beltway, so understanding what your commuting options are is critical before deciding on where to live.

QUANTICO: If you will be stationed in Quantico, the areas closest to the base include Triangle, Woodbridge, Dumfries, Stafford, and Manassas.  Triangle, Dumfries, and Woodbridge lie directly to the north of the base. Manassas is to the West.  The advantages of living in those areas is that if you are driving to work, you will be moving AGAINST traffic.  You will face "base traffic" as you approach Quantico, but that is unavoidable and limited compared to general rush hour traffic.  However, the downside of living to the North of Quantico is that you will not be able to take advantage of some non-driving commuting options.  Commuter buses and trains tend to run North, away from Quantico in the mornings and South, towards Quantico in the afternoon. 
You may choose to live south of the base in Stafford and some individuals will go as far away as Fredericksburg to take advantage of the cheaper housing prices.  You will definitely get more for your money.  The downside, is that you will be driving with traffic during rush hour.  However, you can take advantage of the commuter train, the VRE (http://www.vre.org) which has stops in Fredericksburg, Stafford and within the base in Quantico.

FORT BELVOIR: The areas surrounding Fort Belvoir include Alexandria (generally North of the base), Springfield (northwest of the base), Lorton (to the West and Southwest), Woodbridge to the South. If you decide to live near the area of Kingstowne in Alexandria and near the Springfield Metro, the Fairfax Connector may be a good option if you are looking to take public transportation.  For more information on this possibility go to  (http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/connector/routes/335.htm).  Choosing Alexandria and Lorton will be your best bet if you are trying to limit your distance from the base, but it will also be the pricier option.  Many choose to live in Woodbridge to get more for their money, but you will be running with traffic and hit rush hour.  Other than carpooling, as far as I have been able to find out, no other public options for commuting from Woodbridge to Belvoir are available.

THE PENTAGON: The Pentagon is located in Arlington, VA and it is located within the Beltway.  The advantages of getting stationed at the Pentagon is that it is a commuting HUB which makes public transportation a great possibility regardless of where you decide to live. There is a Metro Stop at the pentagon itself as well as several bus stops, and slugging stops (a popular way of getting around in the Northern Virginia area).   However, real estate near the Pentagon is expensive compared to other areas so many do choose to live farther out.  Even if you decide to live in Woodbridge for example, which many people do, you will have a variety of public transportation options (train, bus, slugging). 

In addition to the information I have provided here, please check out Neighborhood information on my website which provides more detailed commuting information for specific neighborhoods, or feel free to just call or email me. I would be more than happy to assist you.

Luisa Rodriguez

Exit Choice Realty

Woodbridge, VA 22192

240-377-7104

www.RealEstateEliteTeam.com

luisarodriguez@mris.com

For quality service, please contact us and a member of our team will be more than happy to assist you.   

                                

Are there Grants for First Time Home Buyers?

The $5000 Grant for First Time Home Buyers is a program that is not very well known nor advertised.  Few lenders, from my knowledge, offer the program, but it is very much real and available although only in a few states.  Luckily, one of those states is Virginia.  Applicants will have to meet certain requirements and the program has many restrictions, but we have several clients that have bought homes using this program and in all reality, it has been a true God-sent for them.  It greatly reduces the amount of money that the buyer has to bring to the closing table and if the seller offers closing cost assistance, it puts the buyer in a much better position.

Below, I list some of the requirements for the program in "bank speak." To summarize key points: income limits are based on the number of people in the household (the more people in the household, the higher the income limits).  The buyer must live in the house for at least 5 years or they will have to proportionally repay the grant money. You must be a first-time home buyer which usually means that you have not owned a home in the last 3 years.  Not listed below, but also an important point is that the buyer's credit score will need to meet a minimum requirement.

In order to correctly determine whether the buyer will qualify or not, he/she will need to apply for the program.  If you are indeed a first time home buyer, then it is definitely worth trying, but I wouldn't sit on it.  The funds are limited.  If you are indeed interested in learning about this program, contact me ASAP so my team can help you take advantage of this great opportunity and help you find a great home!!

• Maximum subsidy is $5000 per homebuyer
• Funding is provided as a 4 to 1 match
• The homebuyer must contribute at least $1,000
• The homebuyer must have income that is less than or equal to 80% of HUD median income for the area, adjusted for family size
• Purchased home must be used as the homebuyer's primary residence
• Homebuyer must meet the definition of a first-time homebuyer as defined by the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990
• Retention period is five years
• Borrower must complete Bank-prescribed financial literacy training
• Home must be located in the Bank's district, which includes Alabama, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia
• Eligible properties include:
  • Owner-occupied 1-4 family properties
  • Townhouses, condos
  • Foreclosed properties
  • Cooperatives
  • Manufactured and Mobile Housing
  • New construction (within 30 days of closing) 
  
  
  
  
  
  

  CALL ME TODAY TO SEE IF YOU QUALIFY!!!

  
  
  

  ¡SÍ, HABLO ESPAÑOL!

  
  
  Marjorie Chacon
  Prestige Property Group, LLC
  EXIT CHOICE REALTY
  14067 Crown Ct
  WOODBRIDGE, VA 22193
  Direct: (703) 819-6337 
  Assistant: (240) 377-7104
  Office: Office (703)494-0404
  www.PrestigePropertyGroupVA.com
  marjoriechaconteam@yahoo.com
  
  
  
  
  For quality service, please contact us and a member of our team will be more than happy to assist you.